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Thursday, 23 April 2015

The 83rd LE MANS 24 HOURS 2015 - Club Arnage Guide

(Updated after Silverstone WEC)

Changes
this year

Regulations

Various F1 type
regulations restricting the amount of testing, engines, tyres ,
gearboxes, etc, used in the WEC will be introduced this year. These
were confirmed in March. The average weight of a
crew must be 80 kgs (weight including race wear, etc.) and if the
average is less then ballast must be carried.

For Le Mans LMP1 and P2
will be permitted to use a maximum of 7 sets of tyres in Free
Practice, Qualifying and the warm-up (almost 12 hours of track time).
For GTE Pro and Am they will be permitted 8 sets. Four “Joker”
tyres will be additionally authorised for practice in each class. For
the race LMP1 cars will be limited to 12 sets + 2 sets for any new
prototypes. In LMP2, GTE Pro and Am 16 sets of tyres will be allowed
for the race.

Circuit
changes

Work to stabilise the
sides of the track between Mulsanne Corner and the entrance to the
Porsche Curves by tarmacing over some of the grass verges was
completed before Christmas at a cost of €425,000.

At the Porsche Curves
work has started which will be ongoing for about 3 years. At the
first right hand corner the existing gravel trap will be replaced by
an abrasive bitumen coating and new tyre barriers. The width of the
second left hand part will be expanded by about 3 metres and again
grass will be replaced by bitumen. SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy
Reduction) barriers will be installed over a distance of about 220
metres. Phase one of this work started in Feb 2015 and should be
completed by mid May.

The new public road
branching left before Indianapolis corner will not be started until
winter 2015/16. This will mean the stretch from Indy to Arnage will
be closed to the public during the rest of the year.

Other

After 14 years as Race
Director, Daniel Poissenot is retiring. He will be replaced by his
FIA WEC colleague Eduardo Freitas.

Cars and Drivers
on the Grid (Confirmed drivers in Black - Possibles in Red)

LMP1 (14 CARS)
– (Red number panels and have white headlamps. HY on engine cover
depict a hybrid energy system being used. No Bronze rated drivers
allowed. All cars are on Michelin tyres.)

The reigning FIA WEC
Champions Buemi and Davidson are joined by Nakajima from last year’s
other Toyota. Nakajima should be available for the whole season
having no clashing commitments in Super Formula in Japan this year.
The Toyota will continue to use a 3.7 litre V8 petrol engine and will
continue running in the 6mj energy recovery category with it’s
unique super capacitor system (which is likely to be replaced for
2016).

Conway replaces Nicolas
Lapierre,who is still under contract with the team as a test driver
but unlikely to race drive this season having made occasional
appearances in 2014 and will drive the #47 KCMG Oreca at Le Mans.
Kamui Kobayashi will act as reserve driver 2015.

@ Silverstone WEC the
team finished 4th overall after a stop to remove debris
and fit a new nose cone.

All references to
“Lotus” now appear to be gone from this team. The team will
continue to run the AER P60 V6 Bi-Turbo engine. This year’s car has
new suspension for this year and revised aero which will run from Spa
onwards. It is also running a Xtrac gearbox instead of last year’s
Hewland . Trummer is confirmed for the whole season.

@ Silverstone WEC,
where Trummer was joined by Liuzzi and Christian Klein in the 2014
car,the team retired 40 miutes from the end of the race (with an
engine water leak) and was not classified.

Audi competes for the
17th year in succession and last year’s winners return
having been given an automatic invitation. The team which has moved
in to their new base at Neuberg over the winter will be moving from a
2mj to a 4mj energy recovery system, but will continue to run a 4.0
litre V6 diesel engine.

@ Silverstone WEC, the
team finished 1st overall winning by just over 4 seconds
despite a late stop and go penalty for an overtaking infringement.
The team ,taking their joint 9th WEC win, took the RAC
Tourist Trophy setting a new record for laps completed and Lotterer
setting a new lap record.

Rebellion has replaced
last year’s Toyota engines with AER engines which ran in last
year’s Lotus/CLM. The team missed the Prologue and the 1st
round at Silverstone whilst they complete the car which requires a
redesign of the rear axle by car manufacturer Oreca.

The Porsche’s are
moving to an 8mj energy recovery system this year and will continue
to use their 2.0 litre V4 turbo petrol engine. The car was known to
be about 30kg overweight last year but is now on the weight limit.

The team conducted
successful tests at Abu Dhabi and Bahrain early in the year. Hartley
retired from the Daytona 24 hours and the Sebring 12 hours in a
Starworks Riley-BMW DP. They were also fastest in the pre season
Prologue at Paul Ricard (by more than 4 seconds compared to 2014).

@ Silverstone WEC, the
team retired after 44 laps due to a gearbox problem after Hartley
being fastest in Qualifying (the 4th consecutive WEC pole
for the Porsche factory team).

Nissan re-enter at the
top level of Sports Car Racing after 16 years, with a radical front
engine (V6 3 litre twin turbo petrol) and front wheel drive car,
which was exclusively previewed in an advertisement during the half
time break at this year’s Superbowl in February.

The team is based in
Indianapolis at the former Forsythe Racing premises and assembled at
All-American Racers in Santa Ana California.

The team missed the
Prologue, Silverstone and Spa to sort out development after failing
their original crash test. It is likely to run a 2mj energy recovery
system which it will retrieve from the front axle, and has been
tested thoroughly at Austin in the USA.

The #21 will only run
at Le Mans. Matsuda is the reigning Super GT champion in Japan.

Pla joins from LMP2
team G-Drive Racing. Michael Krumm (who is only confirmed for Le
Mans) has been undertaking much of the early testing for the team.
Pla retired from this year’s Daytona 24 hours in Tracy Krohn’s
Ligier P2 but finished 6th at Sebring.

The US team enter this
year’s WEC after one appearance in China last year. The driving
team retired from this year’s Daytona 24 hours and again at
Sebring. The team has decided to delay the homologation of the HPD
ARX 04-b and used the older HPD ARX-03b chassis at Sebring and
Silverstone. The Ligier will be used at Spa and Le Mans but will
still use the Honda HR28TT V6 engine.

@ Silcerstone WEC, the
team finished 3rd in LM P2 but were subsequently
disqualified at post event scrutineering for having a badly worn
underfloor skid plank.

The team retired from
this year’s Daytona 24 hours and finished 8th in the
Prototype class at Sebring.

@ Silverdsone WEC, Van
Overbeek missed the race due to a cracked rib and was replaced by
former Le Mans winner David Brabham and finished 6th in LM
P2 after their team mates were disqualified, despite suffering
gearbox problems and an oil leak.

The team received an
automatic invitation after winning the LM P2 class in last year’s
Asian Le Mans Series. Cumming retired at Daytona but finished 6th
in PC at Sebring. Estre finished 16th in GTD in a 911
Porsche America at Dytona.

One driver will be
chosen from 24 drivers on a reality TV programme “Raceto24”
(www.raceto24.com). 24 drivers
from 17 countries have been selected to take part over a period of 12
weeks, to produce a winner.

The team missed
Silverstone after a late withdrawal due to contractual problems after
agreement for a deal with Kairos Technologies was not completed on
time.

Almost certainly the
last Le Mans for the quasi works 458 before it is replaced by the
Ferrari F488 in 2016. The team received an automatic invitation after
winning GTE Pro in 2014. Bruni and Vilander retired from this year’s
Daytona 24 hours. Fisichella finished 2nd in GTLM at
Sebring.

Pilet with Christensen
finished 5th in GTLM at the Daytona 24 hours and also 5th
at Sebring. Makowiecki with Jorg Bergmeister and Earl Bamber finished
7th in GTLM at the Daytona 24 hours earlier this year.
Henzler retired from the Daytona 24 hours in a Team Falken Porsche
991 but finished 3rd in GTLM at Sebring. Bergmeister with
Makowiecki and Bamber finished 7th in GTLM at Sebring.

The team received 2
automatic invitations (see #68 below) after finishing 1st
and 2nd in GTC in last year’s Asian Le Mans Series. The
team has sourced their 3 year old 997s from the Belgian Prospeed
team.

The team received an
automatic invitation after winning LM GTE (and GTC) in the European
Le Mans Series last year. Bertolini finished 14th in GTLM
at the Daytona 24 hours for Scuderia Corsa and 2nd at
Sebring.

Actor/Racer Dempsey
finished 3rd in GTD at the Daytona 24 hours in a Wright
Motorsports 911GT America. Long retired from the Daytona 24 hours in
a Falken Tire Porsche 991 but finished 3rd in GTLM at
Sebring. Seefried finished 11th in GTD at Sebring in a
991.

The team received an
automatic invitation after winning the GTE Am class at last year’s
Le Mans (although the winning “Dane Train” crew will race this
year in GTE Pro). The team raced in ELMS in 2014 but Hall and Jamie
Campbell-Walter won FIA GTE Am in 2013.

Goethe finished 8th
in the Dubai 24 hours in January driving a Gulf Racing Lamborghini
Gallardo.

The driving team
finished 6th in GTLM at the Daytona 24 hours (with Darren
Turner and Stefan Mucke) and 6th again at Sebring with
Darren Turner. Niki Lauda’s son joins the team this year having
previously run in the DTM.

@ Silverstone WEC, the
team finished 1st in GTE AM having started on pole
position.

Reserve Entries
(in the order that they will be invited to replace drop outs)

90 years ago -
First (and last) award of the Rudge-Whitworth Coupe Triennial to
Robert Senechal & Alberic Locqueneux in a Chenard et Walcker
(although they finished 13th in that year’s race!).

SUPPORT RACES

There will be two
support races on race day morning of 45 minutes each – the first
for the Aston Martin Racing Festival where cars from the last 11
years such as the LMP1 Aston Martin Lola DBR1 and the GT class
winning DBR9 will race against current cars such as the Vantage V8
GTE and the V12 Vantage GT3. There will also be demonstration laps
from Aston Martin road cars of the future
(www.astonmartinracing.com).

The other will be for
“Legends” cars dating from 1949 to 1968
(www.motorracinglegends.com)
. There will be up to 61 cars such as Ford GT40’s and Porsche 908s
and 910s taking part.